Libertyredirects here, as it is the 5th planet of the Carver system and was previouly known as Carver V. If you are looking for other uses, see Liberty (disambiguation).

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The Carver system is home to at least two habitable planets Carver IV and Liberty (formerly known as Carver V), In lieu with the tendency in the BattleTech universe to refer to systems by the name of the (primary) inhabited world therein, the Carver system is occasionally also referred to as Liberty.

The Carver system is located near the Hechnar and Procyon systems[3] and consists of eight planets orbiting a class K0V primary.[2] During the thirty-first century a recharge station was in place at the system zenith jump point,[1] and for decades - if not centuries - the system was home to a substantial naval yard operated by Delhi WarShips[4] located near or above the fourth planet in the system.[5]

Carver V, unofficially renamed Liberty around 3063 and formally renamed after the Jihad,[2] was one of the worlds that remained a part of the Terran Alliance following the Outer Reaches Rebellion and the Demarcation Declaration of 2242,[6] and became one of the worlds within the Alliance Core region of the Terran Hegemony.[12] Carver V had originally been settled by colonists from the poorest nations of South America and Africa, colonists who styled themselves as pilgrims and who regarded the rich bounty of their new home to be a divine blessing, particularly in comparison to the harsh climes they had left behind.[2]

Carver V was dominated by large, deep oceans but the various islands were fertile and largely covered with tropical forests and crystal-clear lakes; there were relatively few desert regions, and the colonists had access to rich deposits of minerals and ores. The colonists named the largest island on the planet Quantico and established their capital city – Bellacqu – on Quantico. Other settlements sprang up swiftly on the planet, beginning with the large settlements of Binsburg and New Cairo; Binsburg was a large mining colony established on the eastern edge of Esperanza – the largest island in the Drasken Chain of islands located in the southern hemisphere – and was the first of these new settlements, while New Cairo was constructed a few years later and was located on the equatorial Kalimbawe chain of islands. Where Binsburg was a mining colony, New Cairo was based around ranching and Crocales-hunting. The founding of Binsburg and New Cairo generated renewed interest in the formation of a blue-water navy to enable the various communities to remain connected.[2]

Although Carver V has three major landmasses, known as Chone, Dendez and Klieksa, 87 percent of Carver V's surface is covered in water.[1] This caused it to quickly become an important world for the Terran Hegemony as a means to supply drier worlds with water. It was also close to the border of the nascent Capellan Confederation, prompting the government to build fortifications to defend the world. Due to the aquatic nature of Carver V typical facilities weren't feasible, with the end result being a requirement to construct a purpose-built base. In 2432 construction on the Quantico Marine Fortification began. Based on one of the planet's largest islands, Quantico consisted of a series of fortified naval bases suitable for launching submarines and other blue-water ships. The island was also home to two spaceports, El Toro and Baku. Connected through a series of underground tunnels was an extensive network of weapons towers completely surrounding the island.[43] The Quantico Marine Fortification incorporated not just areas of Quantico but also the nearby Parris Island and was ideally situated to protect Bellacqu and incorporated a number of fortified bases for both submarines and surface ships; by this point the various seas of the Infinto Ocean were being plied by thousands of merchant marine vessels.[2]

With the formation of the Star League, Carver V would become the home of the Star League Marine Corps. Quantico become the Corps' administrative and training center, with its main headquarters located in Camp Pendleton outside the city of Bellacqu. A small island near Quantico was renamed Paris Island and turned into a bootcamp.[43]

The siege of Carver V effectively began in 2766, when forces from the Rim Worlds Republic were deployed onto the planet under the orders of First LordRichard Cameron II. The Republican forces were under the command of GeneralNoriko Milton-Davis and were expected to work their way into control of the major military bases and facilities on Carver V, as well as putting themselves in a position to attack the SLDF units present both directly and via pre-placed booby traps and bombs. However, the Republican deployment was hampered by the senior SLDF officer on Carver V, General Saul van der Kolk, who was both the senior officer on world and the overall commander of all of the SLDF's Cavalry, Armored, Aerospace and Naval Regiments, commonly referred to as CAAN Regiments. Van der Kolk ordered the Republicans deployed to Quantico to store all of their nuclear weapons within the main nuclear weapons locker within the facility, as well as only allowing limited numbers of Republican personnel to be deployed within the Quantico facility in the first place; the bulk of Milton-Davis' forces were instead deployed in tiny encampments around the various islands on Carver V.[14]

Despite the various setbacks to the Republican plans imposed by Van der Kolk, Milton-Davis' forces successfully seized the planetary HPG on the 27th of December 2766, beginning their part of Operation APOTHEOSIS. With no access to the nuclear devices she'd planned to use to decimate the remaining SLDF units on Quantico, Milton-Davis was forced to rely on those nuclear weapons available on more distant squadrons deployed to minor islands, and ordered her AeroSpace Fighters on Quantico to launch and engage the SLDF fighters to buy time for the nuclear-equipped fighters to strike.[14]

Thanks to the alert operators at Carver V's Space Traffic Control reporting quickly that even as the Republican fighters at Quantico were filing last-minute training flight plans, numerous squadrons deployed on remote islands had launched on sub-orbital courses that would bring them to Quantico, ColonelKoji Icho, manager of the STC, ordered all Republican fighters on Quantico grounded. He also ordered the SLDF fighter squadrons to scramble and flagged an alert to Van der Kolk.[14]

As the SLDF fighters began launching the Republican fighters on Quentin ignored the orders to stay grounded and attempted to launch themselves, while those Republican BattleMechs that had been allowed into the facility did their best to provide cover for the fighters. The SLDF security forces rapidly responded in kind; not only did the SLDF ground forces engage the Republican 'Mechs, but CAAN fighter crews on the ground used the energy weapons on their fighters to attack the Republican forces, a tactic which had been taught to all of the CAAN fighter pilots but which was rarely ever actually used.[14]

The SLDF pilots fared far better than their Republican opponents; a few flights of Republican fighters from Quantico managed to make it into the air, but the SLDF pilots had been extensively trained to operate under fire at forward combat areas, equipping them well for the need to launch, land and resupply under heavy fire; the more skilled SLDF pilots quickly downed those Republican fighters that had made it into the air, as well as engaging the Republican squadrons arriving from more distant locations. Only a handful of Republican fighters made it through the defending SLDF forces to launch their nukes, and the damage was far less than it could have been; the Republicans failed to update their plans to reflect events, and each Republican pilot launched at the target he or she had originally been assigned, rather than more important targets of opportunity. Four nuclear weapons actually detonated, damaging a part of the city of Bellacqu as well as local infrastructure and a number of large defensive batteries, but leaving the main SLDF bases on Quantico intact and undamaged.[14]

Van der Kolk quickly mustered the defending SLDF personnel available to eliminate the remaining Republican forces on Quentin, even as Milton-Davis consolidated her hold over the various other islands on Carver V, including the capital, Korce, and the Reinhardt island chain. Van der Kolk's forces included three full CAAN Regiments, each one of which was a training regiment consisting of personnel working towards their CAAN rating led by experienced veteran CAAN trainers. The large SLDF contingent on Quentin and the lack of any Republican foothold or access to the island left Milton-Davis stymied; lacking the overwhelming numbers or force needed to crack the defenses, the Republicans were forced to resort to probing attacks and waiting for reinforcements, the first of which wouldn't arrive until April, four months after Operation APOTHEOSIS had begun.[14]

Carver V remained contested over the next seven years, but it was not until the end of March 2773 that SLDF reinforcements, in the form of the Eridani Light Horse, would arrive. Amaris ordered numerous counter-attacks but his forces failed to dislodge the SLDF hold on the planet.[44] Carver V's full liberation from the Amaris Empire finally came about in 2775; this, coupled with the tale of the marine garrison's unbroken resistance to Amaris for over eight years, provided the SLDF with a morale boost as they drove closer to Terra.[45]

The various fortifications constructed on Carver V by the Hegemony had been established to secure the world against Capellan encroachment rather than to protect the mining industries and those fashion industries based on Crocales hides, but the collapse of the Star League saw Carver V fall into Capellan hands. During the centuries in which Carver V was ruled by the Confederation it became a vacation spot for wealthy citizens, with the abandoned and empty towers of the Quantico Marine Formation becoming a recognized tourist attraction.[2]

Carver V was eventually be captured by the Free Worlds League in 2953. With the planet the site of the Confederation's last surviving heavy and assault BattleMech production lines, the CCAF fought brutally to recapture the world. While ultimately successful by 2956, the vital factories had been reduced to rubble.[20]

Following negotiations between ColonelPavel Ridzik, chief military advisor to ChancellorMaximilian Liao, and AFFSLieutenant GeneralArdan Sortek, conducted in February 3029 Ridzik created a new nation, the Tikonov Free Republic. The Republic was created by incorporating those worlds of the Tikonov Commonality that hadn't already been conquered during the first half of the Fourth Succession War. Ridzik returned to Elgin, the new capital of the Tikonov Free Republic, on the 3rd of March 3029 and swiftly began implementing a new government consisting of family members, friends and other appointees loyal to himself, purging dissident elements on the various Republic worlds and taking the opportunity to settle old scores. Carver V was one of the systems incorporated into the Republic.[22]

Carver V underwent a dramatic upheaval following the fracturing of the Commonwealth in 3057. The planet was fought over by various factions including the Confederation, the Federated Suns, the Free Worlds League and even the Word of Blake.[2]

In late 3077 the Protectorate Militia Command pulled the First Liberty Protectorate Militia Division from Liberty and deployed them to Dieron along with numerous other Protectorate Militia Divisions and regular Militia Divisions, supported by a large naval task force.[47] The subsequent destruction of the Word of Blake forces on Dieron left Liberty without any major defensive forces for months, until a Blakist mercenary force arrived in early April 3078. During the intervening period Capellan-loyalist guerillas had waged a covert and overt campaign to reclaim Liberty for the Confederation, executing dozens of Blakist officials in the name of the Chancellor. The Blakist mercenaries landed, expecting to rest and refit following damage sustained elsewhere in the Protectorate, only to suddenly find themselves under attack from the Com GuardFifth Army and the Home Guard, as the allied coalition landed Group II of the Free Worlds League front of Operation SCOUR.[48]

The liberation of Liberty was perhaps best described as contested; both the allied coalition forces and Capellan forces acted against the Blakists on Liberty, and during the first week of April 3078 the coalition and Capellan forces began clashing with each other. Each side refused to relinquish the world, with the Coalition finally sending for a negotiator to try and resolve the conflict.[34] Local press on Liberty declared that Liberty had been liberated by the 17th of April,[49] but at least as late as the end of June 3078 Group II of the Free Worlds League coalition task force - under the command of DukeLeonard Stewart[50] - were still in place on Liberty awaiting the independent negotiator, even as the rest of the Free Worlds League task force gathered on Pollux for the strike on Terra.[51] It wouldn't be until after the arrival of Lin Murikami, lead negotiator on behalf of Devlin Stone, that a ceasefire would be brokered between the various factions on Liberty.[48]

This plant would remain a secret from the forces of the allied coalition during SCOUR, but the Capellans had learned of its existence; the Capellans stole a march over the forces of Free Worlds Task Force II by mounting a lightning campaign to capture Quantico before agreeing to the cease-fire. Then, as negotiations went on, the Capellans dismantled the factory, taking the plans for the design and the critical manufacturing equipment present on Liberty, along with a stockpile of parts to enable them to jump start production. They then reassembled the facility on Capella under the auspices of Ceres Metals Industries and began producing a modified version of the Eidolon under a new name - the Yao Lien.[52]

Even the end of the Jihad didn't bring an end to conflict for the world. Contested by both the Capellan Confederation and the Republic of the Sphere, the various small islands of Liberty all bore heavy scars and were likely to attract more; Liberty's position made it likely that the world would be a key battle site, as Warrior House Imarra used the world as the jump-off point for campaigns around various other key systems and planets within the former Protectorate.[1]

As of 3079, the capital of Liberty was Dronane, located on Klieksa.[1] By the end of December 3079 Liberty was one of more than twenty planets to have suffered an outbreak of the Redburn Virus, and one of eight to suffer from an infection rate of more than 150 out of every 100,000 people, as well as a mortality rate of more than 30 per 100,000 from the virus.[53]

Although the local population had begun referring to their world as Liberty as part of a popular movement to unify their ravaged world, it was only with the incorporation of the planet into the Republic of the Sphere that the name Liberty received formal ratification. The planet underwent a period of recovery under Republican rule, becoming a paradise once more for both visitors and natives.[2]

Liberty is dominated by islands of varying sizes, the largest of which is named Quantico. Various chains and groups of islands exist on Liberty, including the Drasken Chain in the southern hemisphere, the Kalimbawe chain of islands near the equator,[2] and the Reinhardt chain.[14] There are three large landmasses named Chone, Dendez and Klieska and the ocean that covers almost ninety percent of the planet is known as the Infinto Ocean.[2]

Carver V was the backdrop for the MechCommander 2 computer game, in which the player controls a group of mercenaries fighting for the various interests on the planet (circa 3063 during the FedCom Civil War). At the very end of the game, the planet is renamed Liberty by the inhabitants.[61]